


Something of the Wolf

by Skyler10



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-01-19
Packaged: 2018-03-08 05:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3196463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I always wondered when Ten explained that SHE was Bad Wolf. Here it is!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something of the Wolf

Back in the TARDIS after being banished by Queen Victoria, the Doctor set to work launching them into the Vortex, no specific destination in mind, just to get away from the death and destruction they had left behind. Though they did this day in and day out, he would be lying if he claimed he wasn’t at least a little shaken.

He saw his own unsettled spirit reflected back to him in Rose. She sat on the jump seat biting her thumbnail, a sign she was anxious about something. It wasn’t hard to guess this time at least, seeing as how they had just left a house that would birth the same institute that had blown up the Sycorax ship just last Christmas. Torchwood. The name itself made the Doctor’s skin crawl, though he didn’t know why. He shook off the sensation and concentrated on finding a way to turn their minds to more pleasant subjects. Perhaps a planet of warm beaches? Or cold… the planet of the peaceful snowmen?

His wandering thoughts were interrupted by the realization that Rose was staring at him. The intensity chilled him to the bone, so unlike the warmth and joy that usually shot through him at her gaze. He had caught her looking at him before, even since Cassandra had pointed it out. They typically played it off as “lost in thought” or ignored the growing attraction between them, but there was none of that playful spirit in the air now. Just honey-gold eyes flickering with a forgotten power.

“Doctor?” She broke her own spell over him. “There was something the werewolf said that I can’t figure out…”

“Said to you?”

“Yeah, when we were down in the cellar, trapped with him. He… he said there was something of the wolf about me too.”

The Doctor’s hearts sped up, but he tried to hide his reaction. He fumbled with the TARDIS controls.

“He was probably just trying to get you to sympathize or something. Imprisoned creatures will say just about anything.”

“Doctor.” She waited until she had his attention again. “He said I burned like the sun.”

He swallowed visibly.

“Tell me,” she demanded. “Tell me what you know.”

“Rose…” He approached her warily and sat down beside her on the jump seat. “What do you remember of right before I regenerated?”

“You sent me home. But I came back with the help of the TARDIS.”

“How?” he asked pointedly.

“I dunno. I was just there, then you sang a song or something to kill the Daleks…” She scrunched up her brow at the blocked memory.

“No. That’s just what I told you. I didn’t have time to explain.” He ran a hand through his hair. This was going to be even harder than he thought.

“Ok. So. You lied to me?” Her question wasn’t angry, just hurt and confused. “And what’s the truth? What really happened to destroy the Daleks?”

“You did.” He let out a bark of a laugh. “My brilliant, brave Rose Tyler. You ripped open the console and looked directly into heart of the TARDIS.”

“But the Slitheen turned into an egg when she did that… wouldn’t it have turned me into a baby or something?”

He smiled for real this time. So clever.

“Telepathic ship. Blon needed a fresh start. That’s what the TARDIS gave her. You needed a way back. To save me.”

Rose nodded in comprehension.

“It turns out I lied to you another time,” he continued. “You remember how we saw the words Bad Wolf everywhere?”

Her eyes widened.

“I knew it wasn’t a coincidence but didn’t want to worry you. I didn’t know what it was but it had to be something bigger than any individual problem we faced. I just couldn’t work it out, what any of those places would have had in common.”

He paused and threaded his fingers through hers.

“It was you, Rose. You are the Bad Wolf.”

“I’m… what? What do you mean? How?” Her breathing was ragged now, knowing in the back of her mind, closed off to her consciousness, it was true.

“That’s what happened when you looked into the heart of the TARDIS. You absorbed the power of the vortex and scattered the words all over our timestream. That’s how you knew to come back to me. And you, Bad Wolf, won the day.”

“I destroyed them? The Daleks?”

He grinned manically.

“Oh yes. You were a goddess.” His adoration made her blush. “You could see all of time and space like I can, but you had the power to manipulate it all. You just dissolved them. You were burning white-hot light from the inside out. It was terrible and beautiful and quite frankly, a little frightening.”

She smiled a little at the thought of the Doctor ever being scared of her. He met her smile, but it faded with his next words.

“It started to consume your mind. No one is meant to have that power. I had to stop it, absorb the energy from your body before it... It would have killed you, Rose.” The desperation in his tone filled in the missing piece.

“You died to save me?”

“With a kiss.” His lips turned upward at the corners again, ruefully this time as if the thought alone broke his heart. “A first kiss so powerful it made me regenerate.”

“Don’t joke,” she whispered and placed a finger on his lips, so near hers. “Not about this. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I swear…”

He pulled her hand down and grasped it in his.

“No,” he said softly but forcefully. “Never be sorry for saving my life, Rose. I would have died, truly died, no regeneration, if those Daleks had won. But you… you did the impossible. You came back with all the universe at your command and what did you do? You saved us all.”

“Not all,” she sighed. “Jack didn’t make it, did he? That’s why we haven’t seen him since. You told me he was rebuilding the earth, but he’s not is he?”

“Ehm…” The Doctor scratched the back of his neck, moving away from her slightly. “Actually, that’s quite interesting. He is very alive in fact. Perhaps too much so…”

He never got to finish that thought, however, as Rose’s phone rang. It was Mickey.


End file.
